Registration Is Open for the 2023 “Cross for LifeFlight”
New in 2023: The Cross for LifeFlight Introduces The Grateful Patient Team!
For Immediate Release – June 13, 2023
Augusta, Maine – Registration is now open for the 2023 Cross for LifeFlight, the state’s premier, choose-your-own-activity, summer event. The Cross takes place during the month of August and supports LifeFlight of Maine, the state’s only air ambulance service. In honor of LifeFlight’s 25th Anniversary, the organization hopes to increase both the number of participants and the funds raised.
This year, The Cross includes a new Grateful Patient Team for LifeFlight patients and their families, including the Jacobs family of Mt. Vernon.
“Being faced with the loss of a child is incomprehensible, until it isn’t,” reflected team member Jeanette Jacobs, whose young son Sawyer was transported by LifeFlight in 2022. “I don’t know where our family would be today had LifeFlight not been available. I can’t thank the LifeFlight crew and the entire organization enough for the lifesaving measures they provided to us and so many Maine families every day.”
The Jacobs family plans to walk, hike, and bike 70 miles together to mark the length of Sawyer’s LifeFlight transport from Franklin Memorial Hospital to Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital.
As a nonprofit, LifeFlight depends on support from individuals, businesses, foundations, and communities. In 2023, the Cross for LifeFlight aims to raise $250,000 to sustain this critical, lifesaving service in Maine. The Cross is intentionally designed to align with LifeFlight’s mission of being widely available to people regardless of age, ability, and where they are in Maine.
Joining The Cross is simple! Participants register and track any outdoor activity that they do in August. Walk, run, hike, bike, paddle, row, or sail. Every mile “Crossed” counts and helps LifeFlight get closer to its goal of raising awareness and funds for Maine’s only air ambulance service.
For those who prefer to enjoy Maine with friends (old and new!), participate at no additional cost in one (or all three) group excursions:
- Guided bicycle ride through Androscoggin County led by The Bicycle Coalition of Maine on Sunday, August 6 at 9:00 AM.
- Family friendly hike in Belgrade on Thursday, August 17 in partnership with 7 Lakes Alliance
- Sea kayak trip to Fort Gorges in Casco Bay led by Portland Paddle on Sunday, August 20 at 3:00 PM.
Registration is $75 before June 30, 2023, and $100 beginning on July 1. All participants are required to raise a minimum of $350.
The event is grateful for the generosity of sponsors and partners including Viking Lumber, New Balance, LiveME, L.L.Bean, LandVest, Northeast Delta Dental, Horch Roofing, Journey’s End Marina, MaineHealth, WGME, Eaton Peabody, Coastal Maine Popcorn, Bicycle Coalition of Maine, Portland Paddle, and 7 Lakes Alliance.
“We want to bring people together for the Cross for LifeFlight to do what we as Mainers love to do in the summer: get outside and enjoy our beautiful state,” said Kate O’Halloran, Executive Director of The LifeFlight Foundation. “The Cross is a perfect opportunity to do something you love, while supporting LifeFlight, which provides a critically important safety net for all who love to explore the Maine outdoors.”
Over the past 10 years, the Cross for LifeFlight has raised nearly $2.5 million to
- upgrade and standardize LifeFlight’s helicopter fleet,
- purchase advanced medical equipment carried onboard,
- fund important clinical education and training programs across the state,
- enhance the state’s aviation infrastructure.
To learn more about Cross for LifeFlight, please visit https://www.crossforlifeflight.org/.
About LifeFlight of Maine
LifeFlight of Maine is a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that every person, in every community in Maine, has access to critical care and medical transport when needed. LifeFlight does this by working with its EMS partners to transform the critical care transport medicine system into an integrated, high-quality, patient-centered system worthy of the public’s trust. In 2023, LifeFlight is celebrating 25 years of safely caring for and transporting the people of Maine. Since 1998, LifeFlight has transported more than 36,000 patients, one life at a time, from every community in Maine.
About the LifeFlight Foundation
The LifeFlight Foundation provides fundraising and public relations support to LifeFlight of Maine. The LifeFlight Foundation is governed by a Board of Trustees whose members include medical, business, legal, and education professionals from across the state. Supported by the generosity of the many friends of LifeFlight, the Foundation raises funds for aircraft, medical equipment, hospital helipads, statewide aviation improvements, and the many education and outreach programs offered by LifeFlight of Maine.
